


Coffee-ology & marine biology

by TheForestUnderQuarantine



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bad Flirting, Barista Keith (Voltron), Coffee and crushes, College Student Lance (Voltron), M/M, Marine Biology student Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21984910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheForestUnderQuarantine/pseuds/TheForestUnderQuarantine
Summary: It's the day after Christmas & Lance really has to finish his essay. But how is he supposed to concentrate when he's got manatee memes & his favourite barista's having a rough time?Well, he supposes he'll have to make it a little rougher before adding some sugar to Keith's day.For Lance Positivity Week Day 2: Coffee Shops & Cafes.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 92





	Coffee-ology & marine biology

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Poltergeistreport](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poltergeistreport/gifts).



> It's like a week late, & still more to write, but I'm so stoked I managed to pump out two one-shots in a day. Whew.

Lance really should have been studying. Truly. But there were too many distractions. Sure, he was in his go-to place to avoid the distractions of home. But he’d failed to account for the busy periods. So he was distracted in the place he was supposed to be distraction-free. The light above his head—such a pale halogen white, slightly tinted by yellow—was buzzing like a distressed bee. His marine biology textbook had been splashed with a cute girl’s drink and was currently drying off to the side. He didn’t want to risk damaging more than the cover flicking through it. And there were memes of rainbow manatees and rock collections and sunbears ‘who look like humans wearing bear costumes.’ So much baby yoda today, too. How was he supposed to work when it was giving him Puss In Boots eyes from behind the screen? It was a me day. A meme day. Not a day for working on ‘the comparative physiology and social hierarchy of a dugong and a manatee’ for his marine biology introductory essay. Why write about them, when you could look at videos of them booping into glass at aquariums? It was a no-brainer, really.

Speaking of no-brainer—

His favourite mullet-haired barista was currently getting chewed out by a customer because she’d ‘thought skinny milk was vegan’ & he hadn’t corrected her. Lance could see him gritting his teeth, biting down the ‘how was I supposed to know you wanted a vegan coffee when you didn’t order a vegan coffee and gave no indication that, you guessed it, you wanted a vegan coffee.’ The steamer going off behind him worked perfectly with his expression to suggest a simmering temper. He hoped the hothead didn’t say anything too bad to risk his job. He was the only barista that put up with Lance’s low-key flirting that could hold his own and shut it down. He wouldn’t try it with anyone else—didn’t want to harass someone just doing their job who had to be polite back—just this barista with the name-tag Keith who was never pretending to be polite anyway and would greet customers with a brooding scowl. Lance didn’t doubt he’d tell him to piss off if he was honestly pestering him. Plus, they shared a physics class together, and it might be a mixed science metaphor but Lance knew Keith felt the chemistry between them.

He looked at his essay—well, the title and the flickering typing bar—and sighed. He had to admit nothing was going to get done. Well, not without an additional coffee. His eyes flickered over to Keith the baristas, which were closing in sheer frustration as he handed over a free replacement coffee with almond milk. The woman was still berating him, but the words were getting louder with more space between them as she sipped the coffee. Free coffee was a bad situation get out of jail free card. Hopefully they didn’t dock it out of Keith’s pay for the idiocy of a customer. 

The wallet at his hip burned. Okay, he’d order another coffee. He opened it up, grabbing out a fifty. God, this was risky. This was madness. He was a poor college student with rent to pay and this was his Christmas present money his parents had given him to treat himself as per American college kid tradition. He looked down at it, remembering their beaming faces. 

He held it in his fist and practically stormed over to the counter. 

“Mullet,” he shouted. 

Keith’s head whipped up, eyes practically blazing. “What?” he snapped back, in his worst customer service voice.

Holy shit, they were at that level of familiarity and comfort.

With great solemnity, Lance leaned against the counter, trying to be suave while not getting too far in his space. “Give me your finest caffeine drip, please.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Your usual then? We’re out of caramel sprinkles.”

“I can do rainbow?”

Keith’s eyes narrowed. “Done.”

He turned his back to him, scooping out coffee beans to grind. Lance waited, checking his nailbeds. Damn they looked pretty today. He stood up and splayed them on the benchtop, smugly noticing Keith glancing back to look at them. Christmas colours. With Rudolph painted on the pinky. 

He saw that little smile and counted it as a win.

“So,” Lance began casually, “that woman was a piece of work, huh?”

He could hear Keith hum affirmatively before the coffee machine blasted on and did its magic. 

A fifth coffee wasn’t going to hurt him.

“Yeah,” Keith said, Lance lipreading. Smart man, covering up complaints under the steamer “Up there with people who buy ridiculously complicated drinks that should be desserts.”  
Lance chuckled. “Touche, my friend.”

Keith tapped out the coffee grinds and quickly cleaned the filter. With moves so done with life they might as well have been theatrics, he grabbed out the whipped cream. “You want a tower on this?”

Lance’s eyebrows narrowed and he smirked, challenging him. “As high as you can go without it falling, buddy.”

Keith returned the smirk. “Oh, I’ll show you how high this can go.”

So it might have spurted a little bit and overflowed in his determination to build a high cream building. Blame it on performance anxiety and a lack of scaffolding.

Lance snorted with laughter. “Art. Pure art. Could be in a museum, have you seen what passes for modern art these days?” 

Keith just grumbled and wiped the bench clean, his face and the tips of his ears red as Lance’s index and ring finger.

“String of bad luck, huh?” Lance winked.

“String of bad customers,” Keith scowled.

Lance laughed, taking no offense. Keith’s eyes honed in on the endearing crinkles around the eyes and dimples in his cheeks. Damn him, his eyes seemed to be saying. Lance could read him all too well. And so he dialled up the charm.

“So, how much does a guy have to pay for such excellent service, my man?”

“That’ll be 3.50,” Keith said flatly.

“Really? A bargain,” he handed over his note. He pulled back a little, not wanting to make things awkward for Keith with physical contact in the exchange but Keith’s hands rushed in, fingertips brushing over his own. Keith played it off without wincing or giving away that they were both chasing that spark. Smooth, Kogane, smooth.

“Your change,” Keith said, eyes level with his own and even toned. Not even a flicker of the voice to show he was effected? Damn. 

“Well,” Lance stretched his arm out, dumping the notes and coin with a heavy clang and flourish. “I really appreciate the service here. And think the guy behind the counter puts up with too much crap for what he’s paid. So I really hope he can treat himself to something nice tonight. Maybe some good cake.”

He turned around just as he saw Keith’s eyes widening, wanting to give the surprisingly shy moody man a moment to process his involuntary reaction.

He counted it as a win when he saw Keith watching him walk away out the corner of his eye.

Yep, now he definitely had the motivation to smash out this essay.

Nothing fuelled a guy like coffee and a cute dude’s attention.


End file.
